Budget Rings for Savage 10 Trophy Hunter XP

[Tex_Hunter]

Hi all,

Had my long standing hunting rifle stolen out of my truck last year while eating lunch (broad daylight on the side of a busy highway)... Anyways insurance company shafted me and so I had to replace on a budget. I had been wanting a savage for a very long time so I grabbed one of the mod10 Trophy Hunter package rifles for $500 in 308. I've been having some serious accuracy issues that I believe are related to the cheap (understatement) scope mounting system that looks like it came off my son's pellet gun. The scope is reasonable quality so the weak link seems to be the mount, and either way I'm trying to eliminate causes starting with the cheapest and moving down the list.

A little background, I have about 120rounds through this rifle since I bought it in September2013, got it zeroed and printed some 2-3" groups but zero was moving around on paper a little. When I was cleaning after the range I noticed mount had come loose. Tightened re-zeroed and then took it out to some 12"plates at 300yds and had no problem ringing those but then inexplicably gun moves off zero and starts putting shots all over the place, scope mount was rattling and scope could be twisted in rings. Re tightened with locktite but noticed the weaver bases were gouged from the the crossbar on the rings. Also noticed 2 of the 4 scope ring cap screws were bent.

Before I give up and sell the rifle or completely gut it and build something using just the action, I want to try a decent but affordable scope mount to see if I can get the thing shooting well. I have heard the law package rifles are capable of 1 or even .5 moa so I was disappointed.

I stumbled across the Warne Maxima permanent mount weaver rings and 2 piece bases, could get the whole rig for about $60. Are these reasonable? I saw a rifle build in the web using this setup on a 300 RUM and the author was pretty laudatory of their quality and strength. I don't want to dump a ton of money into this until I am certain the rifle can shoot and if it can't it will probably get sold. When I did my part my old rifle could hit watermelon sized targets about 60% of the time at 900 yards and printed sever cloverleaf groups at 100yds with off the shelf match grade ammo. So I at least have reason to believe I'm not the cause.

Are there any other setups in the less than $100 range that I can rely on to solidly mount the scope so I can focus on any other causes (if any) of my accuracy problems with this rifle?

[earl39]

I haven't used the Maxima but i do use Warne rails and rings and i haven't found anything wrong with Warne mounts. That said i guess even the best could have a bad product. If what you had was all Weaver i would say something was bad wrong with it and not the norm. Weaver mounts are cheap but normally they hold up fairly well under normal conditions although i have gone to the Warne rings and bases.

[the Ranger]

Talley lightweights, $45 and the ring is also the base eliminating one possible problem area.

[Tex_Hunter]

Sorry meant to specify... The mount is whatever bargain bin stuff savage puts on those package rifles. I don't figure it is weaver brand, I just meant weaver style. They looks like the mounts on my son's pellet gun. Two piece base with with only one slot on each base and cheapie rings with a big round thumb screw with a flathead screwdriver slot to tighten